Dan's Johto Journey
by BritishBoy1997
Summary: Join Dan as he travels through Johto, making friends, battling rivals and beating Gyms to become the best trainer he could be. This is based on the Heart Gold games using my OC (Own Character). May include cameos from Ash and his friends.
1. Dan's Johto Journey Chapter 1

**Authors Note:** Hi. This is my first story. Please comment and tell me how you liked it. It is based upon the Heart Gold Pokémon game using my OC called Dan. Also, I am from England so certain words will be used differently e.g. trousers instead of pants. I hope you like this as I plan on doing the other games as well.

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*deet deet deet dee- CLICK*

"YAWN, just another Friday morning, wonder what'll happen to me today", thought Dan as he pressed his alarm clock, got out of bed and changed into some of his favourite clothes. A T-shirt with a pokéball in the centre, an unzipped cardigan style hoodie, a pair of comfy trousers and a pair of blue trainers with white laces. Dan is an ordinary 18 year old boy in a tiny town. He's around 6ft tall and quite skinny. Brown, messy hair and a pair of glasses. He has a best friend called Lyra who he enjoyed hanging out with but apart from that, he didn't do very much. He did help the local professor from time to time but not with anything big. It was mostly travelling to the nearest Pokémart for potions while Professor Elm and his assistants were very busy with research.

"OK, I'm up, I'm dressed, now It's time for breakfast." Dan stated as he looked around his room. It was a simple room with a wooden bed, cerulean walls, a blue and green carpet and a computer resting on a wooden desk with a comfy stool tucked neatly underneath.

As Dan walked downstairs into the front room, his mum immediately noticed and quickly rose from her seat to greet her only son.

"Hi Dan" she said with a loving smile on her face, "I'm glad to see you, Lyra was just here. She was playing Hide-and-seek with her Marill and wondered how you were doing. Also, Professor Elm was looking for you. He's probably got some jobs for you so I told him you'd be right over. I even got your stuff ready and waiting for you on the Kitchen Counter."

"Thanks Mum" Dan replied, heading over to the Kitchen. The house was quite small so the Kitchen merged with the rest of the room. The ground floor consisted of a single T.V. placed on an oak cabinet, with the Kitchen taking up the back-right corner of the house. The stairs that lead to the bedrooms were at the back-left of the house and the centre of the house was occupied by the table and chairs on the Sky blue rug. Once he reached the counter, Dan grabbed his bag and put in his Trainer card he got for his 10th birthday and his Journal he liked to keep all his important memories in.

"Never know what might happen to me today" he wondered as he turned round and headed out the front door.

"Bye Dan" he heard his Mum say as she sat down to watch a program on the T.V.

"Right then, off to the pro-OOF!" Just before Dan could finish his sentence, something knocked the wind out of him.

"Marill Mar-Marill" the small thing exclaimed

"MARILL, I'M GONNA FIND YOU" Dan heared, not too far away. It wasn't an angry shout, it sounded more playful. As he looked towards the sound of the voice he noticed his best friend Lyra walking down the stairs. Lyra was the same age as Dan but was born a couple of months after, so she was technically younger. She was fair skinned with light brown eyes and she had light brown hair tied into a pigtail on either side of her head. She wore a white cap with a red bow tied around and she was wearing her usual outfit. A red shirt with a white collar and a pair of short blue dungarees with the legs cut off just under the waist. She wore white stockings with a black rim and a pair of plain red boots. She was also carrying a cream coloured bag with her pokégear and Marill's pokéball attached.

"There you are, Marill!" she exclaimed, as she turned towards the small blue and white creature, "I knew I could find you"

"Marill Mar-Marill Mar" Marill quickly stammered as he tried to apologise to Dan before he then started running back to his trainer.

"That's O.K., Marill", Dan replied, understanding most of what Marill was trying to say. Because Marill was constantly out with Lyra, Dan had been able to understand Marill. Not as much as Lyra could, but he could understand the basics.

"Sorry about that Dan, I'm sure he didn't mean to do it. Come on Marill, Let's go check out the woods." Lyra quickly stated before she ran off out of sight with Marill trailing behind her like a Growlithe.

"Well, Guess I'd better head to the prof's lab then" Dan quietly decided before heading to the largest buildiing in the small town. "Wonder what jobs he has for me today?"

As he approached the building, Dan heard a strange noise coming from the left. As he walked around to check, he saw a strange boy, similar to Dan, staring through the window. He was a bit shorter than Dan and had dark red hair with three odd spikes sprouting from the bottom-left, bottom-right and very top of his head. He wore a long coat with a red trim and a pair of blue jeans.

"So, This is the famous lab of Professor Elm" the stranger silently muttered to himself. As Dan approached, it caught the attention of the stranger.

"What are YOU staring at?" he said with a sneer and a slightly threatening tone. Not wanting to get into any trouble, or keep the professor waiting any longer, Dan decided to walk into the lab. The stranger didn't seem to be doing anything wrong, so he decided not to mention it to the professor when he arrived.

As Dan walked in, he saw Professor Elm waiting at the back of his lab, looking towards the door. As Dan walked closer Professor Elm greeted him and welcomed him in.

"Hi Dan" He said with a smile in his voice, "I've been waiting for you. First, a quick question. Do you remember what my research is primarily focused on?"

"Yeah"Dan replied"It has something to do with pokéballs and the relationship between pokémon and trainer, right?"

"Correct, five stars. Let me refresh your memory. As you no doubt know, Pokémon are normally carried around in pokéballs. But there was a time when pokémon and people trusted each other enough to be able to walk around freely without the fear of having pokémon stolen or lost, just like your friend Lyra does. I want to test if walking alongside a trainer has any advantages towards how a pokémon grows or even if there are any effects towards a pokémon's evolution."

"O.K. prof, I'm following you so far, but what does any of this have to do with me?" Dan wondered. Professor Elm never usually did this. Normally, he would just give Dan a job and continue working.

"I'm Glad you asked Dan." the professor replied, with a weird look of relief in his eyes" I need a test subject, a guinea pig if you will, to walk around with a pokémon they've never seen before, so I want it to be you, Dan"

"M-M-Me?!" Dan stuttered, bewildered by this sudden request.

"Sure" the prof answered confidently"You'd be great, and besides, it'll only be for a couple of days at most. All you have to do is walk around with it beside you and it should be no trouble at all. The machine over there has some rare pokémon, take your pick." he said as he motioned to the large cylindrical container on the other side of the lab.

All of a sudden a high pitched *DING* rang through the lab.

"Oh, please excuse me for a moment" The prof stated as he turned to look at his computer " I got an E-Mail. Hmm... Uh-Huh... O.K. then... Hey, Dan" he exclaimed, as he turned around to face me.

"Listen, I have an acquaintance that everyone calls "Mr Pokémon". He finds all sorts of items like Eggs or special stones. He just sent the E-Mail to say he found something really exciting. I think it's just another egg" he stated with an exasperated sigh, implying this has happened a lot before. "But you never know. Anyway, I'm a little busy so I was wondering if you could go grab that egg for me? It's a little ways north past Cherrygrove city but if you're taking a pokémon, it shouldn't be too much trouble,should it?"

""No" Dan replied quickly, happy things were back to normal. Well, normal plus, he would be taking along his own pokémon after all. "I'll be back after I've gotten the egg"

Dan walked over the the large cylinder and looked inside to find three pokéballs. He opened each one to see what was inside. The first pokéball contained a small, green quadruped with a leaf on its head and some odd little buds around its neck."Chikorita" it sang as it was released. The second pokéball contained a small blue rodent with red spots on his back and a cream coloured underbelly. It had a large snout and kept its eyes tight shut."Cyndaquil" it squeaked out as tiny flames shout out of the spots on its back. The third pokéball contained a small reptilian creature with a large jaw and wide eyes. It had red spikes running down its back and tail with blue scales and a yellow underbelly. "Totodile" it proudly stated, showing off its impressive teeth and claws.

As Dan looked over each creature and studied it, he was drawn towards the small reptile, Totodile.

"O.K. then, Totodile, I choose you!" Dan stated. This made the Totodile jump for joy while the other two looked very disappointed. As Dan prepared to send the other two back into their pokéballs, the stranger outside looked on through the window with an angry fire, building up within him.

"Alright Prof, I picked one, I'll see you later once I get the egg, alright?" Dan asked the prof as he started to walk out.

"Sure, quick question first, how does it feel to walk around with the Totodile? Totodile sure seems happy. Hey, since you're keeping him, do you want to give him a name?" asked the professor as he looked down towards Totodile who was currently squirting water into the air, making a small fountain.

"I think i'll name him..." Dan pondered whilst looking down at his new friend "Aqua!" Dan exclaimed. This caused Totodile to immediately smile, easily pleased with his new nickname.

"O.K." the professor murmured, "You can walk with him all the way to Mr Pokémon's House. If he gets hurt, you can use the laptop on my desk. Just put Totodile in his pokéball, place it on the machine and press restore. Everything should be fine after it's finished".

"Thaanks professor" Dan said as he started to leave. Before he could, Will, one of the professors assistants walked up.

"Hey!" Will exclaimed "If Totodile gets hurt use these,..." he stopped as he reached into his coat pockets and pulled out some potions "To heal him on the go" he finished as he handed Dan the purple bottles of liquid.

"Thanks a lot" Dan replied as he placed the containers into his bag. "Well, guess I better start going then." Dan said to himself as he headed towards the professors door. "The Journey Begins"

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 **Authors Note:** So, did you like it? Please say in the comments. I would like to thank my grandparents who helped with the spelling and grammar. I hope to see you in the next chapter. I will try to upload one chapter a week at least, but they might be on different days. Until then, I bid you all, adieu


	2. Dan's Johto Journey Chapter 2

As Dan headed out of the professors door, he was temporarily blinded by the contrasting light between the professors lab and the bright midday sun outside. Once his vision returned he noticed Lyra playing with her Marill in the middle of town. Marill was running circles around Lyra as she tried to grab him. After a couple of spins, she noticed Dan had returned from inside the laboratory.

"Hi Danny" Lyra called. 'Danny' was the nickname Lyra had given Dan because of how he signed his name on paper, Dan.E. "Wow, you got a Pokémon? That's pretty cool."

"Yeah" Dan replied. "The prof wants me to walk around with him. He said he wanted a test subject for his research, he even gave me one of his special Pokémon he keeps in the machine."

"Oh, so you picked...a Totodile." Lyra exclaimed as the small reptilian poked his head out from behind Dan's legs. "Aww, that's such a cute Pokémon you picked. Did you give him a name?" Lyra questioned.

"Yeah" Dan started, "I called him Aqua. After all," Dan paused to look down at his newest friend. "He is linked to the water"

Lyra and Dan both chuckled. As Lyra started to pet Aqua, she looked up at Dan. "Hey Danny" she started "You know, if you walk with him, he becomes more friendly towards you, even if you put him back into his Pokéball. You should talk to him as well, get to know him better like me and Marill, right buddy?" she questioned as she turned around to face her partner.

"Marill Mar-Marill" The blue and white aquamouse responded.

"It will really help you understand each other Danny" Lyra continued, turning to look at Dan, who had now crouched down to lightly pet Aqua. "Oh" Lyra exclaimed as she suddenly jumped up. "You should go show your mum, you know, to make sure she's O.K. with it."

"Marill Mar-Marill Mar" Marill started to chant as he was jumping up and down impatiently.

Lyra looked to Marill with an understanding in her eyes. "You want to finish our game, don't you?" This caused Marill to grin widely, before he started to run off. Before Marill could go anywhere, he stopped to take one last, quick look at Aqua , before following Lyra, who had started to walk ahead.

"Well, I guess she has a point" Dan muttered to himself, before heading towards his house with his new friend in tow. Once he had entered the building, he walked up to his mother who was enjoying some scrambled eggs on toast.

"Hey Mum" Dan greeted, "Look at what the professor gave me."

As Dan's mother turned around, she was greeted by the grinning mouth of the big jaw pokémon. This new face combined with the unexpected arrival of her son momentarily shocked her. After she had swallowed the food she had in her mouth to prevent choking, she finally replied.

"Oh! Dan!" she started "That's such a cute Pokémon you have. Where did you find it?" she asked.

"First of all, he's a 'he', not an 'it'" Dan corrected his mother."Second, I didn't find him. I got him from Professor Elm. He said he wants me to walk around with him and he wanted me to pick something up from a Professor Pokémon who lives north of Cherrygrove City."

"Hmm" Dan's mum uttered, showing slight concern. "That sounds a little tricky. Although, I guess if someone asks you to do a job like that it must be important. Oh!" She quickly looked up at Dan. "I just remembered, while you were over at the lab, your pokégear came back from the repair shop. I'll quickly go grab it for you." Once she had finished her sentence, she rised from the chair and briskly walked over to the kitchen counter. "Here it is" she quietly shouted from the other end of the house. "Your pokégear, all fixed." she finished as she handed the pokégear over to Dan. "Call me if you get into any sort of trouble, O.K.?" she asked, with a stern tone to make sure Dan would remember.

"O.K., i'll call if anything goes wrong." Dan answered, with a small sigh. "Come on Aqua, we should get going, we don't want to keep the professor waiting long, do we?" Dan playfully questioned his partner. "Bye Mum, see you soon" Dan finished, quickly waving at his mother before exiting the door to the outside world.

Once Dan had made it outside, he headed straight for Route 29. Before he could leave town, Dan heard the professor yell. As Dan turned around, he saw the professor was heading straight for him. He decided to stop so the professor would be able to catch up just in case he wanted to talk to Dan.

"Dan" Professor Elm gasped, slightly out of breath, "I asked your Mum to tell me when your pokégear came back from the shop. I want to give you my number, just in case anything changes while you're walking to Mr Pokémon's house."

Dan passed over his pokégear to the wheezing professor. After Professor Elm had inputed his number into Dan's pokégear, he said a quick goodbye to Dan before heading straight back to his lab. Once the professor was out of Dan's eyesight, he decided to carry on to Route 29.

Route 29 was a small, straightforward route that smelled of freshly cut grass. It was surrounded by trees and contained large patches of tall grass that reached up to just above Dan's ankles. There were some ledges along the way that were too steep to climb over, but small enough that you could easily leap down from the other side. There was also plenty of places to meet wild pokémon but they were very weak. There were 3 different entrances/exits to Route 29. The first was the East entrance Dan used to walk in and out of New Bark Town. The second was the west entrance, which lead to Cherrygrove City and third was the North Entrance which lead to Blackthorn City, but was impassable from this direction as it was bordered off by a steep ledge.

As Dan started to walk down the path he used many times before, he heard a small noise emmiting from the grass. Dan chose to ignore the noise and continue onwards. After only a few steps, a small rodent appeared in front of Dan. As it came to a halt, it balanced on its striped tail, showing off its cream coloured, ring patterned underbelly. Once it was comfortable, it stuck its tiny brown arms out and perked its long, dark-brown ears up.

"A Sentret?" Dan questioned. He had seen them on the edges of the route before, but they had never appeared this close to him before. As Dan tried to walk around, the Sentret followed, blocking Dan at every chance.

"Well, I guess this is as good a time as any to test you out Aqua" Dan muttered to himself as he turned towards Aqua, who seemed to be glaring at the Sentret. "Aqua, I choose you!" Dan exclaimed to no-one but himself as he pointed towards the Sentret. "Alright Aqua, let's see what you can do. Use...umm..." Dan paused. It was at this moment, Dan realised he had no idea what moves Aqua could actually use. Instead of waiting for a command that was never going to be issued, Aqua's claws glowed white, before charging at the Sentret and scratching him across the chest.

"Hey, you know scratch." Dan responded, after watching Aqua attack Sentret. "Way to go Aqua. What else can you use." Hearing this, Aqua looked over at the waiting Sentret. However, before Aqua could do anything, the Sentret scratched Aqua across the chest in the same way as Aqua had done earlier. Not letting Sentret get the better of him, Aqua menacingly looked over at the sentret, with a slight glint in his eye.

"Was that Leer?" Dan questioned. He was pretty good at figuring out which attacks were what, but some very subtle attacks still confused him. "Hey Aqua, do you know anything else?"

"Toto" Aqua sadly answered, while shaking his head. While Aqua was responding to Dan, the Sentret started to use Foresight. As he studied Aqua very carefully, looking for a weak spot Dan saw an opportunity.

"Alright Aqua" he began, "Use Scratch". Happy that Aqua's answer didn't cause Dan to get upset, Aqua raced forwards to deliver the attack. Scratch, combined with the previous Leer, damaged the sentret so much, he became visibly weak, but the Sentret was still battling. As Sentret continued to study Aqua, Dan quickly ordered Aqua to use the same attack again. After Aqua had used scratch a third time, the sentret fainted, allowing Dan and Aqua to pass.

"Phew" Dan exhaled, showing his relief. "I wonder why that happened? It's never happened to me before." As Dan finished his sentence, he looked down towards the dazed Sentret. "I hope it's going to be alright. Well, I guess we should just continue on, right Aqua?"

"Toto-to" Aqua replied, happy that it had just won its very first battle. As Dan and Aqua walked along, more Sentret blocked their path. As with before, Dan and Aqua had defeated them all. Aqua even learnt a new move, Water Gun. Unfortunately, all of the fighting had taken its toll on Aqua. Fortunately, Dan managed to use one of the potions Will had given him on Aqua, which seemed to fully restore Aqua's energy.

"Why does this keep happening?" Dan questioned to himself after defeating the third sentret. "I know,"Dan realised. "I'm heading to a Pokémon professor's house, i'll ask them when I get there."

Just before reaching the end of the route, Dan heard a loud but quick pokémon cry, before a small cream and brown coloured bird dive bombed Dan and Aqua. The small bird had a cream underbelly with pink toes and white claws. It also had a short brown tail and a stubby pink beak. The wings were half brown, half cream and it had black markings around its eyes. It also had three small crests, two cream on the side and one brown crest in the centre.

"Pidgey" The small bird announced, flapping its wings once.

"So that's a Pidgey" Dan muttered. "Well, can't be any harder than all the Sentret we've already beaten, right Aqua?" Dan finished

"Toto-Totodile" Aqua replied, grinning at Dan before turning towards the Pidgey with a slight glare in his eyes.

"Alright Aqua" Dan stated as he began to issue a command "Use Water Gun!"

After hearing the command, Aqua began to prepare his latest move. He drew in a large breath which inflated his chest and then leant his whole body forwards, before unleashing a seemingly unlimited, forceful blast of water from his mouth. As the water splashed the Pidgey, Aqua stopped to get his breath back. This left an opening for the Pidgey who flew into Aqua's chest as hard as he could, almost knocking the wind out of him. However, Aqua didn't seem fazed by Pidgey's attack at all.

"Aqua, quick" Dan shouted as fast as he could. "Scratch him while he's close, he won't be able to fly away quickly enough." Aqua reacted as fast as he could, his claws on his right hand glowing with a bright, white light before scratching the small bird across the top of his head. Almost immediately, the small bird plopped onto the ground, with a dazed look in his eyes. After all of the Sentret Dan had already defeated, he knew this was the sign that a Pokémon had fainted and would soon scurry away to regain some energy.

"Alright" Dan slightly cheered "I knew that would be easy for you, right Aqua" he questioned as he looked at the small, smiling reptile. "Come on, we've reached Cherrygrove city, who knows what might happen to us." Dan indirectly told Aqua, as they crossed the border between Route 29 and Cherrygrove city, not knowing what was about to take place in his own home town.


	3. Dan's Johto Journey Chapter 3

As Dan walked past the opening between the white pickett fence and he entered Cherrygrove City, he was hit by a strong smell of flowers lining the path's border. As Dan continued down the path, he immediately noticed an old man waiting by the entrance. Dan thought he seemed harmless enough, and if he did do something weird, Dan could easily outrun the old man. As Dan continued down the path, ready to walk North towards Professor Pokémon's house, the old man stopped him in his tracks. This piqued Dan's curiosity, so he decided to stay and listen to what the man had to say to him.

"Hi, My name's Jim" The old man introduced. "You're a rookie trainer, aren't you?" Jim questioned. Before Dan could reply, Jim interupted. "Of course you are, you have a Pokémon with you." At this comment, Aqua jumped up and down, loving how he got noticed. "That's O.K." Jim continued, "Everyone is a rookie at some point. If you'd like, I can teach you a few things."

"Wow" Dan stated. As Dan thought about the conversation, he realised he didn't know a lot about how to actually look after a Pokémon. If Jim could teach him a few things, it certainly wouldn't be a bad thing. "Alright then," Dan replied.

"O.K. then" Jim exclaimed, with an obviously pleased look on his face. "Follow me!"

Jim zoomed off, kicking up small clouds of dust leaving Dan behind. Realising that Dan hadn't followed, Jim stopped near a building Dan had never really noticed. After a quick spin, Jim raced back towards Dan, who had been dumbstruck at Jim's speed.

"Ohh...I'm sorry" Jim started to apologise. "I forgot you weren't wearing the running shoes! I'll try to go as slow as possible, so try keeping up!" Dan had seen the running shoes advertised on T.V. before. They were a pair of super light-weight trainers with retractable running spikes and a spring hidden in the sole that were designed to increase the running speed of anyone. Unfortunately, they had a small setback. Using the trainers in areas heavily populated by Pokémon, seemed to attract more Pokémon than normal. As Jim began running as slow as he could, Dan still had trouble keeping up and Aqua was having trouble keeping up with Dan as he had such smaller legs.

"This is a Pokémon Centre" Jim stated, stopping in front of a large building. The Pokémon Centre had an orange roof with a white Pokéball on an orange background. The top floor was covered in windows, while the bottom floor had two white walls and a sliding glass door that jutted out from the rest of the building. "They heal your Pokémon in no time at all. You'll be relying on them a lot, so you better learn about them." Jim finished. As he did, he rushed towards another unfamiliar building. This time, the building had a large, spinning blue sign with another white Pokéball on both sides. The building itself was only small. It had a large blue door and a small window on the front. The roof was black with a blue rim that had a single yellow stripe running through the centre.

"This is a Pokémart" Jim stated as he turned towards the building. "They sell Pokéballs for catching wild Pokémon and other useful items." This time, Jim headed towards the edge of town, waiting at the Northern entrance.

"Route 30 is out this way" he exclaimed, again, turning towards the route itself. "Trainers will be battling their Pokémon there. If you go a little further, you'll see Mr Pokémon's house." After he finished that sentence, he headed South. As Dan followed, he noticed that the grass had started to turn into sand and he could smell salt in the air. As he got closer to where Jim had stopped, he could hear the waves lapping on the sandy beach.

"This is the sea, as you can see" Jim pointed out. "Some Pokémon are only found in bodies of water, like this." This caused Aqua to grin, showing his sharp teeth. Because Aqua was a Water type pokémon, he loved the beach and the ocean. After he showed Dan, he made a quick U-Turn and ran in the opposite direction to where he was facing. Their next destination was so far away, Jim had to stop to let Dan and Aqua catch up, before heading to the actual destination.

"Here..." Jim paused, a slight blush appearing on his face. "it's my house. For your effort keeping up with me, i'll give you my running shoes. They're still warm." As Jim handed a pair of shoes to Dan, Dan reluctantly took them, having no intention to wear a pair of shoes an old man had just been running around town in."Got you" Jim blurted out, a smile creeping up on his face. "Don't worry, these shoes are actually brand new, never been used before."

"Whew" Dan sighed, relieved he didn't have to wear Jim's shoes. "Thank you very much Jim" Dan replied with a grin on his face as he slipped on the new shoes suprisingly, they fit perfectly. As Dan looked up again, he saw the door to the man's house shut close, and assumed he had walked in.

"Well Aqua," Dan started, as he turned around to his partner. "Think you can keep up?" Dan asked, with a slight grin on his face.

"Toto-Totodile" Aqua defiantly stated, placing a fist on his puffed out chest, ready to run behind Dan.

"O.K. buddy" Dan slightly chuckled. "I'll go slow, just for you." After Dan had put on his new trainers, he started to head towards the northern entrance of Cherrygrove City. As he did, he noticed, even while going slowly, there was a noticeable difference between his speed now and his speed without the shoes. The houses, grass and flowers seemed to race past. Just before he reached the next route, Dan heard a familiar call. As he stopped, he turned around and saw Jim running towards him.

As Jim approached, he was huffing and puffing, clearly exhausted by a run Dan had managed to do with ease.

"Phew" Jim gasped as he attempted to get his breath back. "I made it. You left before I could give you this" Jim pulled out a small SD card and presented it to Dan. "This is another token from me. Let me just load this into your Pokégear." Since Jim had not done anything bad so far, Dan, still being cautious, handed over his Pokégear. Once Jim had it in his hands, he inserted the SD card into a small slot onto the side. Then, after a few minutes of loading, Jim handed the Pokégear straight back to Dan.

"There" Jim exclaimed. "I just loaded the Map Card into your Pokégear. It'll show a map of any region you are currently in, whether it's Johto, Kanto or even as far away as Kalos."

"Thanks Jim" Dan replied, before Jim started to walk back home without a single word. With this, Dan shrugged his shoulders and continued onto Route 30. Route 30 ran North to South with only two entrances/exits. It was covered in areas of dense woods, with lots of ledges and a few small ponds populated by water-type Pokémon, and large areas of tall grass. As Dan walked along the ledge, he encountered a green, banana shaped Pokémon with eyes and some small spikes that jutted out of its head. As a battle began, the Pokémon rumbled 'Metapod' before Dan sent out Aqua to battle.

"Alright Aqua" Dan defiantly said, "Use Water Gun". As Aqua started his Water Gun attack, the Metapod just seemed to stand perfectly still, letting the attack hit him straignt on. Afterwards, the Metapod seemed to tense up his muscles, increasing the strength of his hard shell.

"Not Harden" Dan mumbled quietly to himself. Harden was the only move a wild Metapod knew, and it can sometimes raise its defense to annoyingly high levels. "Aqua, keep using Water Gun until he faints"

It took Aqua two more Water Gun's to take down the Metapod because it kept using Harden to strengthen its defense. Once the Metapod had fainted, Dan continued to walk down Route 30. As he continued, he noticed a small object glinting in the sunlight, just ahead of where Dan was standing. As he approached, he ran into a small Pokémon that looked a lot like a caterpillar, with green skin, a big black eye and yellow rings running down the side of its segmented body. The main difference was the single, double-ended antenna instead of two single antenna on the top of his head. As it lifted its head up, standing on the back set of legs, it let out a little squeaky 'Caterpie'.

"Alright Aqua, Let's try your Water Gun attack on him." Dan commanded. As Aqua fired his Water Gun Attack, there was a special white glow surrounding the blast of water. As the water hit the Caterpie, there was a small explosion which resulted in the Caterpie instantly fainting.

"Whoa, was that a critical hit?" Dan questioned as he looked on in shock and awe. Aqua was shocked as much as Dan was, but he was soon beaming with pride from hi first critical attack AND his first One-Hit K.O. Once the Caterpie, Dan went to examine the shining item. As he got closer, he realised it was a Potion that someone had accidently dropped.

"Well, no-one's here, and no-one else picked it up so I guess it's finders keepers." Dan reasoned as he leaned down and picked up the vial filled with the purple liquid. As Dan walked up a set of stairs that had been carved into the side of a ledge, he saw a lone house with a small tree planted in the front. Having never been this far before, Dan assumed that it must have belonged to Mr. Pokémon. As Dan knocked on the door, a man's voice shouted 'Come in'. Dan pushed the door open and saw a middle-aged man sitting on a chair by his table. As Dan walked in, the man seemed extremely happy.

"Hi,"the man introduced himself. "My name's Alex. People usually come to my house looking for Mr. Pokémon's house. You did mean to visit my house right?" Alex asked. Not wanting to upset the Alex, Dan lied and said he had definitely meant to come to his house.

"How kind of you!"Alex exclaimed with a massive grin plastered across his face. "Do you...have any apricorns?" Alex asked. Dan had no idea what Apricorns were, so Dan just shrugged his shoulders and shook his head from side to side.

Alex started to explain. "Apricorn trees bear fruit once per day. I have one out front if you want to take it. Apricorns are really useful, you can even make Pokéballs out of them, if you're skilled enough. They can be used for other things but my memory is not what it used to be. I have a feeling that our meeting was meant to be. I'm so happy, i'll give you this. It's an Apricorn box for you to store all of your Apricorns in. It can store as many Apricorns inside of it as you want. I bet you'll be an excellent Apricorn collecter." Once Dan had been given the Apricorn box, he decided to leave as quickly as he could to avoid the awkward situation he was in. However, he decided to take the Apricorn from the tree outside Alex's house. He had just been given permission from Alex to take it, and he didn't want to disapoint him. As he shook the tree, the small, green berry that was slightly poking out of the top, jumped into the air, right before Dan managed to capture the Apricorn. As Dan walked past Alex's house, he noticed another discarded item on the ground.

"Who keeps dropping these things?" Dan questioned to himself, puzzled that someone had carelessly left items on the ground. As he walked closer, he noticed that the bottle was a different shape and the liquid inside the bottle was a different colour.

"I'll save this for later, who knows when you might get poisoned." Dan finished as he looked down towards Aqua, who had an upset look on his face, not wanting to think about being poisoned. As he continued North on Route 30, he noticed a pair of young trainers, maybe 10 or 11 years old, battling Pidgey and a small, purple, quadrupedal rodent with two large, front teeth and a cream underbelly. Once the Pidgey had attacked the small rodent, it let out a shrill 'Rattata' before it recovered. Not wanting to intervene, Dan continued heading North down the path on the right, hoping that it was the correct way to Mr. Pokémon's house.

After another couple of minutes and some more Pokémon encounters, Dan reached another lone house. As he approached, Dan noticed another Apricorn tree outside the house. After picking it up, he headed towards the door. Before Dan could knock, the door opened from the inside and Dan was greeted by another elderly man.

"You must be Dan," The elderly man stated. "It was I who sent the E-Mail to Professor Elm earlier. Come on in, take a seat."

"Thank you sir, but I don't plan on staying." Dan formally declined. However, Professor Pokémon insisted, and led Dan inside onto his seat, just opposite from another older gentleman in a lab coat, before rushing towards his bookcase, pulling out a glass case before carefully walking towards Dan.

"This is what I want Professor Elm to examine." Professor Pokémon whispered, just loud enough for Dan to hear, before showing Dan what was inside the glass case. "It's an Egg i've never seen before. A friend of mine from Ecruteak City gave it to me. I bet you can't find this kind of egg anywhere else in Johto. I thought Professor Elm might be able to tell what this is. 'He's the best when it comes to the research of Pokémon evolution'. That's a quote from the famous Professor Oak. You are returning to Professor Elm? Here, your Pokémon should have some rest."

"And with that" The other man in the lab coat stood up and started to walk towards Dan. "I'm Professor Oak, a Pokémon researcher." He introduced himself. "So you're Dan. I was just visiting my friend, Mr Pokémon and I heard you were running an errand for Professor Elm, so I waited here." As he finished, he looked towards Aqua who was sitting down patiently. "Oh! What's this? A rare Pokémon! I see. You must be helping Professor Elm's research. I think I understand why Professor Elm gave you that Pokémon. You will treat your Pokémon with love and care, it seems." He finished as he looked towards Dan. "Ah! You seem to be dependable. How would you like to help me out? See this? This is the latest version of the Pokédex." Professor Oak explained as he pulled out a small, red, electronic device. "It automatically records data on Pokémon you've seen or caught. It's a high tech encyclopedia! I'd like you to have it."

"Thank you Professor" Dan exclaimed as he accepted the Pokédex from Professor Oak.

"Now, go meet many kinds of Pokémon and complete that Pokédex! But i've stayed too long. I have to get to Goldenrod for my usual radio show. Dan, I have a feeling that this is not the last time we'll meet. Let's exchange phone numbers just to be on the safe side." After Dan and Professor Oak had exchanged phone numbers, The Professor left. Seeing as Dan had been handed the Egg, he waved a quick goodbye to Mr. Pokémon before he also left the house. As soon as he left, his Pokégear started to ring. The caller I.D. on the front showed that it was Professor Elm calling, so Dan picked it up, with the intention of telling the Professor what had just happened.

"H-Hello? Dan?" The Professor's voice quivered on the other end. "It's a disaster! Uh, um, it's just terrible! What should I do? It...Oh, no...Please get back here now!" The Professor almost screamed through the Pokégear, causing Dan to panic before hanging up.

"Well, sounds like we better hurry." Dan defiantly stated, before running back to Professor Elm.


	4. Dan's Johto Journey Chapter 4

As Dan raced down Route 30, his new running shoes allowed him to travel at a blinding pace. All the trees ended up blurring together, becoming one large streak of dark green resting on a mud-brown colour. Surprisingly, Aqua managed to keep up with Dan, sensing how important it was for Dan to be able to run as fast as he could. Even though Dan knew he had to race back to Professor Elm as fast as he could, it didn't stop any wild Pokémon from attacking him along the way. It was a difficult decision to make, go faster and attract more Pokémon or go slower which could leave the Professor in danger. As Dan was more concerned about the Professor's safety, he chose the former, but as he engaged in a battle with a Caterpie, he was worried that it may not make much difference.

"Aww, come on!" Dan let out a frustrated sigh. "Alright Aqua, we've dealt with this before, it shouldn't be too hard. Use Water Gun!" Dan explained as he pointed towards the green Caterpie. As soon as Dan issued his order, Aqua reared back, storing as much water as he could before unleashing a powerful stream at the Caterpie. Unlike last time, this Caterpie seemed to be able to take the attack without fainting. As soon as Aqua had finished, the Caterpie let out a string of sticky web-like fluid from its mouth, wrapping Aqua up and restraining his movement.

"Not String Shot" Dan exasperated. "We're trying to hurry up, I don't need a Pokémon slowing Aqua down! Quick, use Water Gun again." Dan exclaimed, pointing at Caterpie. Unfortunately, the String Shot had slowed down Aqua so much, the Caterpie attacked first. However, the Caterpie decided to use String Shot again, slowing Aqua down even more. Fortunately, this means that Aqua still had all of his strength left.

"Alright Aqua," Dan pondered to himself. "Water Gun didn't seem to work. Use Scratch instead." After hearing this new command, Aqua's right hand started to glow a brilliant white before he charged straight towards the Caterpie. Even though Aqua was slowed down by the multiple String Shot's, he managed to use all of his strength to attack the Caterpie fast enough before Caterpie could dodge. After Aqua's attack landed, the Caterpie looked visibly weak, but he refused to faint, and with Aqua right in front, Caterpie tackled straight into Aqua, knocking him back towards Dan. Luckily, Caterpie's Tackle didn't seem to do much damage at all.

"Dan, Use Scratch, quick as you can!" Dan commanded, frustrated that the Caterpie refused to stop. Because Aqua had been knocked backwards, he had to run towards the Caterpie. This was much easier as the Caterpie was so weakened, it barely had enough strength to move. As Aqua scratched the Caterpie with his claw, the Caterpie finally fainted.

"Finally" Dan gasped, "Come on Aqua, let's get a move on."Before Dan and Aqua set off, Dan released Aqua from the silk-like string surrounding his body. After releasing Aqua, They were fortunate enough to make it all the way from Mr. Pokémon's house to the Eastern entrance to Cherrygrove City. The Running shoes let Dan travel at blinding speed as he leaped ledges and sprinted down paths, appearing as a blur to onlookers while Aqua tried his best to keep up and doing surprisingly well. As they reached the entrance between Cherrygrove City and Route 29, he noticed the strange red-haired boy approaching. Before Dan could race past, the strange boy stopped him in his tracks.

As the stranger approached, he took a long, hard look at Aqua. "You got a Pokémon at the Lab" he sneered with a look of disgust on his face as he turned towards Dan. "What a waste. That's a Pokémon that's too good for a wimp like you."

This remark started a fire within Dan. Angrily, he stated "Hey, I'm not a coward." Dan grumbled, preventing himself from shouting at the stranger.

"Don't you get what I'm saying?" the stranger looked at Dan, with a slightly annoyed look on his face. "Well, I have a good Pokémon too. I'll show you what I mean." The stranger stated, pulling out a Pokéball from a strap attached around his waist, similar to a belt. "Chikorita, battle time." the boy finished, as the small, green quadruped Dan saw when he picked Aqua at the Lab emerged.

"Alright Aqua, this'll be our first proper battle, let's try and win this."

After Dan had finished his sentence, Aqua walked out in front of Dan, locking eyes with the Chikorita. Before Dan could issue a command, Aqua's body started to pulse with a light red colour before attacking Chikorita with as much Anger he could muster. Right before the attack, a white glow formed around Aqua, signalling a critical attack.

Stunned, Dan turned towards Aqua. "Was that Rage?" he questioned as Aqua seemed to calm down.

"Hah" the stranger snorted. "Your Pokémon's out of control, let me show you how a _real_ trainer battles. Chikorita, Growl." the stranger remarked, slightly sarcastically. As soon as the stranger issued his command, the Chikorita let out a mighty growl, causing Aqua to slightly cower.

"Aqua, don't let him get to you" Dan attempted to reassure Aqua. "Use Leer."

As Aqua straightened himself out, he looked straight into Chikorita's eyes with a slight sneer on his face. This caused Chikorita to back up slightly, dropping his defences.

"Coward" the boy growled, "Use Tackle." At this, the Chikorita ran straight towards Aqua, showing how much faster the small green Pokémon was compared to Aqua. As Chikorita charged towards Aqua, a small white glow formed around its body, before damaging Aqua.

"O.K. Aqua" Dan thought. "Lets try Rage." After hearing Dan's command, Aqua started to get angry, his body pulsing with the same red glow, letting all of his anger rise to the surface, before furiously attacking Chikorita. Unfortunately, This forced Aqua to get as close to Chikorita as he could, leaving Aqua no time to dodge whatever attack Chikorita might unleash next.

The stranger also noticed this mistake and took full advantage of Dan's error. "Chikorita, Tackle." As soon as Aqua had calmed down, Chikorita tackled into Aqua, the white glow forming around Chikorita's body. The attack was so powerful, Aqua rolled backwards, stopping at Dan's feet. As Aqua climbed up, he growled in frustration, waiting for Dan's next command.

"Aqua, Keep using Rage" Dan commanded. As Aqua started his attack, Dan noticed the glowing red emanating from Aqua was becoming a deeper shade each time it was used. As Aqua started to build up his rage, he charged towards Chikorita, slashing and growling as he furiously attacked.

"Push him away Chikorita, Growl" the stranger commanded, noticing how much weaker Chikorita was compared to Dan. Chikorita Let out a fierce growl, strong enough to push Aqua backwards slightly and loud enough to cause Aqua to cover up his ears.

"Humph! You're doing O.K. for a weakling." the red-haired boy sneered. Before the Stranger could issue a command to his Chikorita, Dan decided to change tactics.

"Aqua, Scratch" Dan calmly ordered, a small grin forming in the corner of his mouth. As Chikorita was still pushing Aqua back, he couldn't use his claws, the growl was preventing Aqua from focusing enough to use Rage and Chikorita's Grass typing made Water Gun almost useless. Fortunately, he was close enough to use the claws on his feet. Realising this is exactly what Dan meant, Aqua kicked towards Chikorita, scratching him across the face with his foot.

"CHIII-" the Chikorita screamed, just before collapsing onto the ground in a pile. As the stranger looked on in shock, he withdrew Chikorita back into its Pokéball before turning towards Dan and Aqua.

"Humph! Are you happy you won?" the stranger asked with a look of disappointment in his eyes.

"Well, kinda" Dan replied, thinking the answer would have been obvious. "I mean, that _was_ our first trainer battle and...we _did_ win it." As he ended his sentence, Aqua jumped up towards Dan, giving him a high-five or, in Aqua's case, a high-three.

As the stranger looked on, he was curious why Dan would do that with Aqua. As he walked closer to Dan, he started to ask questions. "Do you want to know who I am?" he started to question, getting close enough to Dan, he could feel his breath on his face. "I am going to be the world's greatest Pokémon Trainer." As he finished his sentence, he pushed Dan to the side and continued onwards to Cherrygrove City. As he placed Chikorita's Pokéball back into his pocket, a small rectangular piece of card slipped out as he pulled out his hand. Dan walked over and inspected the mysterious object. It was his Trainer card. Every Pokémon trainer had to carry one of these to prove their identities and to allow access into Tournaments. It contained Trainer ID, a unique code given to everyone, Name, age, picture and signature.

"Hey!" Dan heard a voice call out. As he looked up, he noticed the strange boy was staring at him. "That's my Trainer card. Give it back, now!" the stranger was yelling as he walked up to Dan. As soon as he took the card back, the strangers face changed from anger to fear.

"Oh no...you saw my name." he muttered before running off in the Direction he had just come from. As soon as the stranger was out of Dan's sight, he suddenly remembered what he was doing before the battle.

"Oh no, the Professor,"Dan realised with a look of shock on his face before turning to look down at his reptilian partner. "Come on Aqua, double time" he ordered, before racing down Route 29. Dan had taken this route so many times, he knew of a special way to travel along that would ensure there were no Pokémon encounters. As he raced down, Dan took a different path, leaping over the ledges he couldn't climb over, running as fast as he could, turning left and right numerous times before reaching his home town of New Bark Town. As Dan entered, he made a beeline for the Lab, charging straight in to meet with the Professor and a Police Officer. As soon as Dan approached, the Officer stood directly in front of Dan and began asking questions.

"Who are you?" he asked in a gruff voice, "We're investigating the case of the Missing Pokémon here and rule number one of the crime scene states 'Whoever did it will come back to the site'." As the Officer finished his sentence, he noticed Aqua hiding behind Dan. "Oh my" he started, "you must be...the one who did it!" As the Officer finished his sentence, he reached for his handcuffs. Just before Dan could be arrested, a familiar face burst through the door. It was Lyra

"Hold on a sec," she frantically explained, "Danny has nothing to do with it! I saw it. It was a red-haired boy looking into the building."

Once Lyra had finished her sentence, Dan started to put the pieces of information together in his mind.

"So that's why he had Chikorita" Dan quietly mumbled to himself. "He must have stolen it after I picked Aqua. I bet he wanted the Type advantage." Dan continued, "I shouldn't have let him get away after our battle."

"What?" the Officer questioned after listening to what Dan was mumbling. "You battled him. He must be the one who did it." He started pondering to himself before turning back to look at Dan. "Did you happen to get his name?" the Officer asked in a stern tone. Dan thought back to when he picked up the strangers trainer card and remembered what the his name was.

"Anthony," Dan replied "Anthony Sangria"

"I see" the Officer mumbled, writing down the name in his notebook. "So Anthony Sangria is his name." Once he had put his notebook away, he turned towards Dan and Lyra with a small smile on his face. "Thank you for helping my investigation" he stated as he nodded his head with thanks. "My next task is to search for this red-haired individual." Once he had finished, he started to head outside, on the lookout for Anthony. Once he had left, Lyra was actually the first to speak.

"Whew" she gasped, before turning towards Dan. "I'm glad they understand you're innocent Danny. Anyway, I gotta go. See ya!" she exclaimed, waving a hand behind her as she walked out the door. Leaving just Dan and Professor Elm who still looked distraught.

"Oh Dan" he muttered sadly. "This is terrible. Oh!" the professor exclaimed as he suddenly perked up. "I almost forgot, what was Mr. Pokémon's big discovery?" he asked as he turned towards Dan. As soon as the professor asked, Dan opened his bag and pulled out the glass case with the Pokémon egg inside.

"This" Dan simply stated as he carefully passed the fragile object over to the Professor.

"Hmm" the professor mumbled, curious about the item. This is an Egg, isn't it?" the professor asked in a seemingly rhetorical manner. "This Egg may be something I've never seen." he continued to himself. "Still, it's just an Egg. Mr. Pokémon is always fascinated by Eggs." he explained, turning towards Dan, before quickly turning back towards the Egg. "Well, since he gave it to us, we might as well find out what secrets it holds. I'll keep it for a while and find out what secrets it holds."

"Professor" Dan squeaked, trying not to interrupt. "I also met Professor Oak. He even gave me this." Dan ended as he showed Professor Elm the small, rectangular Pokédex. This seemed to cause the Professor to look at Dan with a surprised look on his face, causing Dan to get slightly nervous.

"He gave you a Pokédex? Wow" the Professor exclaimed, trying his best not to stutter as his look of shock changed into a look of wonder. "That's...That's...Incredible!" he finished, with a giant smile on his face. "Professor Oak is superb at seeing the potential inside people to become Trainers." Professor Elm explained. "Wow Dan, I always thought you might be special, in a good way of course. Things are looking up for you Dan." Once he had finished, he noticed how Aqua was looking up at Dan while Dan gently stroked Aqua's head. "Aqua seems to really like you." the Professor noted. "Why don't you Pokémon Gym Challenge?" Professor Elm questioned. After seeing the small look of confusion on Dan's face, he started to explain. "If you manage to defeat all eight Gym leaders in Johto, you will be granted access to battle the Elite Four and the Johto Champion. If you defeat all of them, you will become the new Champion of Johto...or not." He ended, trying to make a joke, before he continued on with his explanation. "Becoming the Champion is no easy task, but you can certainly challenge the Violet City Gym." Once he finished, he walked over to his laptop, before turning round to face Dan. "Dan," The Professor continued. "Challenging the Gym's scattered around Johto will be a long journey, make sure you talk to your Mum before you go.

"O.K. Prof" Dan assured him. "I'll go talk to her now. Bye." Dan said as he left the Lab, leaving the Professor alone to work. Once Dan had passed through the doorway, he noticed the sky was becoming darker, and the sun was setting behind the Lab. He walked over to his house, ready to tell his Mum what he was going to do. As he entered, he saw his Mum in the kitchen, preparing Dinner.

"Hi Dan" She stated as she raised her voice. Dinner's almost ready, it's your favourite, Barbecue Pizza with Stuffed crust." The mere mention of the dish started to make Dan's mouth water.

"Great. Hey, I've got some news for you. I've decided i want to head out on a journey around Johto and try to become Champion."

As Dan's Mum heard the information, she started to think aloud. "So, you're leaving on an adventure. O.K. then, if it's what you really want, I'll help you pack. Just promise me you'll be careful" she pleaded, with the most serious look Dan had ever seen on a person's face before.

"O.K. Mum, I promise." Dan replied, looking his mother directly in the eyes.

"Great, but it is getting dark, and tea is almost ready, why don't you head out first thing tomorrow morning?" she asked, still looking out for Dan.

"O.K. then. Tomorrow, the journey begins." Dan mumbled to himself, trying to imagine the adventures he and Aqua would discover in the world of Johto.


	5. Dan's Johto Journey Chapter 5

The next morning, Dan was awake and dressed quicker than he'd ever been before. This was one of the most exciting days of his life. Every person dreams of going on their own, unique journey to accomplish their own, unique goals, but not a lot of people manage to be successful. As Dan grabbed his backpack he and his mum filled last night, he rushed downstairs to see Aqua. Aqua didn't notice Dan had appeared as he was too busy eating his breakfast. However, Dan's mum had heard his heavy footsteps from downstairs and was already getting his breakfast ready.

"Big day today," Dan's mum said as she and Dan had started to eat their breakfast, Dan having chocolate spread on lightly cooked toast while his mum had a bowl of cereal. "Setting out for your own journey, travelling all over Johto. Now, I know you probably don't want to hear this," Dan's mum paused to take another mouthful of cereal before carrying on, "But I do want you to follow some rules." Once she finished her sentence, she put her spoon down and looked straight at Dan with a very serious look on her face. "First," she started to explain, "I want you to call me everyday. Second, make sure you change your pants and socks every day. We packed all of your clothes so you should be able to last a good couple of weeks. Third, keep your dirty clothes and your clean clothes separate. Otherwise," her serious look changing to a small smile, "have fun." She ended, continuing to eat her cereal. Once Dan had finished his mouthful, he replied.

"Sure will Mum," before looking down at Aqua, "and you can remind me, right buddy?" Dan playfully asked his small blue friend. Realising that he was being asked a question, Aqua gulped down the food in his mouth before placing a fist on his chest and letting out a defiant 'Toto' and finishing the last pieces of his breakfast.

As soon as Dan and Aqua had finished, he gave his mum a quick hug goodbye before walking out the door, officially starting his journey. Remembering what the professor had told him yesterday, he decided to head towards Violet city. Pulling out his Pokégear, he opened up the map and noticed that Violet City was just past Mr. Pokémon's house.

"Right," He quietly said before looking down at Aqua. "Come on Aqua, I know just where we need to go." Once Dan had shown the map to Aqua, he started to run out of town towards Route 29, he noticed Lyra and Marill were playing together. Marill was excitedly running circles around Lyra which caused Lyra to turn around. As soon as she had, she noticed Dan standing still with Aqua by his side. Lyra's kind and playful nature caused her to beckon Dan over.

"There you are!" Lyra called out to Dan, "We've been waiting for you. Seeing as your going out on a journey, I thought I'd show you how to catch wild Pokémon. It's not like you can do everything with just _one_ Pokémon," Lyra stopped to look down at Aqua, who had a slight scowl on his face after Lyra's last comment. "Even if he _is_ super cute and super tough!" Aqua realised this was Lyra's apology, and his small scowl changed into a giant grin. Smiling back at Aqua, Lyra looked back towards Dan who had just been observing. "Follow me, I'll show you just what to do." As soon as Lyra finished, she spun around and walked further down the route. As Dan followed close behind, a small, purple rat with red eyes, cream whiskers and a long tail jumped out, with a fearsome little 'Rattata'.

"Alright Dan," Lyra started, with a slight grin on her face, "watch and learn. Go Marill!" Lyra commanded, pointing at the Rattata before Marill jumped out in front. "Marill, use Tackle." As soon as Marill heard Lyra shout 'Tackle', she charged into the Rattata as fast as she could, slamming into him with all her might. This seemed to cause the Rattata to stumble, but not cause any visible damage. As soon as it recovered, the Rattata turned around and started to swing its tail back and forth, mesmerising Lyra's Marill.

"O.K. Dan," Lyra started to speak, " We lowered its health, so now we can throw a Pokéball at it." Lyra stuck a hand in her bag, rummaging around for a Pokéball. As soon as her hand brushed up against the small, metallic sphere, she firmly grasped it, yanking it out of her bag. As she took aim, she pulled her arm back, before throwing the ball at Rattata with all her might. Before the Rattata could react, the Pokéball smacked him in the head, before opening up and engulfing him in a bright red light. After a few seconds, the red light was drawn into the Pokéball, immediately sealing shut before landing on the ground. As Dan, Lyra, Aqua and Marill all watched on in silence, the Pokéball rocked back and forth once...twice...thrice, before hearing a small *click* sound, confirming that the Rattata had been freely Lyra walked up to the Pokéball, she continued her explanation.

"And that's how it's done." she boasted. "Although, you really should lower its health more than I did, or make it go to sleep or something. I guess we just got lucky, right Marill?" As she looked down at her partner, Marill beamed back up, excited that she may get to have a new friend to play with. As Lyra looked back at Dan, she opened up her bag to have a look inside. "Here, you can have these to start off with" Lyra insisted as she pulled out five Pokéballs. "They are all empty, so you can catch your own Pokémon with them. Anyway, I got to go see my Grandparents. They run a Pokémon Daycare on Route 34, just South of Goldenrod City. I left a Pokémon there and I said I'd pick it up later today. See ya!" she waved as Lyra and Marill both headed to Route 34. As soon as Lyra had walked out of earshot, Dan looked down at Aqua, as Aqua looked back up at Dan.

"O.K. buddy, let's keep going." Dan encouraged, before jogging down Route 29. Dan and Aqua ran into many Pokémon along the way, but Dan and Aqua had seen them all before. Even though Dan could capture them, he thought they would be too weak as Aqua had already defeated them numerous times before. However, Dan decided to take a little detour. He hadn't used it on his way to Mr. Pokémon's because it headed in the direction of New Bark Town and he hadn't used it when he was rushing back because he was in a hurry, but now that he had started his journey, he decided to explore. As he headed along, he noticed that someone had dropped something on the floor. As Dan got closer, he realised it was another full Potion that someone seemed to have dropped.

"Yoink." Dan muttered as he picked up the small bottle. before turning around and heading back towards Cherrygrove City, running into even more Pokémon. Along the way, he noticed a lone Apricorn tree he hadn't seen before. Intrigued, he walked up and decided to pluck the green Apricorn, slightly sticking out from the top of the small tree, before rushing into Cherrygrove City. Instead of just charging through, Dan decided Aqua should get some rest at the Pokémon Centre after the numerous battles he had been through. As he walked up to the desk, he was greeted by a tall woman standing behind the desk with fair skin, blue eyes and pink hair with a curled fringe and tied in two large loops at the back of her head. She was wearing a short, pink, collared dress, White pinafore with a giant bow tied at the back, white dolly shoes with white straps and a Nurse hat with a small red cross in the centre.

"Hello," she greeted, with a sweet, but professional voice. "Welcome to the Pokémon Centre. My name is Nurse Joy. We restore your tired or fainted Pokémon to full strength. Would you like to heal your Pokémon?" Nurse Joy asked, with a sweet smile, waiting for a response.

Dan simply nodded his head in response, before Aqua jumped up onto the desk. Dan simply pulled out Aqua's Pokéball and returned Aqua inside, the red beam of light engulfing Aqua's body before being sucked into the Pokéball. As soon as the Pokéball snapped shut, Dan handed the capsule over to Nurse Joy, who placed the capsule in a small indentation on a large machine to left of where she was standing. As soon as it was in place, Nurse Joy switched on the machine. The machine immediately started to whirr, causing Aqua's Pokéball to glow with a faint, yellow energy. This only lasted for a few seconds before the machine switched off. As soon as the machine stopped, Nurse Joy grabbed Aqua's Pokéball and handed it to Dan, who immediately released Aqua. Aqua seemed fully restored and bursting with energy, ready to battle the next Pokémon he saw.

"Your Pokémon has been fully restored." Nurse Joy explained, that sweet smile appearing on her face. "Please feel free to come back any time your Pokémon are injured or tired." Dan simply nodded in response before waving goodbye and heading outside with Aqua close in tow. As soon as they were outside, they rushed up Route 30. After battling a few more wild Pokémon and picking another Apricorn, Dan noticed the two kids he saw having a Pokémon battle had returned, except they weren't battling this time. One of the kids was searching through an area of long grass while the other was waiting just past the small ledge. As he attempted to walk past, the boy searching through the grass had seen him.

"Hey!" the small boy shouted "I'm Joey. I lost a fight yesterday, so I'm trying to find more Pokémon to help me. Could you help me train my Rattata?" Joey asked. "I want to see how strong he is now." Dan accepted the boy's challenge, deciding it would be a good chance to see how strong Aqua had gotten in the process. As Joey sent out his Rattata, Dan sent out Aqua to battle.

"Alright Aqua," Dan calmly ordered, "Use Water Gun." As soon as Aqua heard which move Dan wanted him to use, Aqua reared back, storing as much water as possible before unleashing the mighty stream at Joey's Rattata. Aqua had used this move so many times, it was almost second nature, and it was executed almost instantly. Although it may have been enough to defeat a wild Pokémon, the trained Rattata withstood the attack.

"O.K. Rattata," Joey started to command. "Tackle him"

As soon as Rattata heard his trainers command, he charged straight into Aqua. Compared to Aqua, the Rattata was just slower than Aqua, but compared to other, weaker Pokémon, the Rattata was extremely fast. Rattata rammed right into Aqua's chest, trying to damage Aqua as much as possible. However, the attack barely moved Aqua, causing minimal damage.

"Aqua," Dan slightly raised his voice, trying to show the urgency in his voice, "Scratch him while he's close." Understanding Dan's command perfectly, Aqua's claw glowed white, before swiping across the purple rodent's back. This caused the Rattata to collapse on the ground at Aqua's feet.

"Noo!" Joey shouted. "Rattata, return." Joey stated, holding out Rattata's Pokéball, the red energy, engulfing the fainted Pokémon before drawing him back into the Pokéball. "Guess we need more training." Joey mumbled, looking at Rattata's Pokéball with a sad look in his eyes.

Not wanting to upset the boy any further, Dan and Aqua continued onwards up Route 30, battling more trainers and wild Pokémon. They battled the other young boy, Mikey, who used a Pidgey and a Rattata and a Bug Catcher named Don who used two Caterpie in battle. Dan and Aqua managed to defeat them all with ease as Aqua grew stronger with each victory. As Dan and Aqua continued along the new part of Route 30, they noticed a dark cave and an item just to the left. Dan's collective nature drove him to pick up the item first, which turned out to be another Potion someone had dropped.

"Who keeps dropping all these?" Dan wondered, picking up the small bottle of purple liquid and storing it in his backpack with all his other potions Will had given him the day before. Once he put the potion away, Dan and Aqua walked towards the entrance to the cave, trying to take a look inside. Unfortunately, the Cave was pitch black, preventing Dan or Aqua to see past the faint light the sun was emitting through the small entrance.

"Well, let's go." Dan nervously stated. "Who knows what's in there." Dan nonchalantly stated to himself and Aqua, unknowing that inside, he would find his newest partner.


	6. Dan's Johto Journey Chapter 6

**Authors Note:** Sorry for the shorter Chapter, I wanted to end at Sprout tower but there was so much happening that I didn't realise and I thought the chapter was longer than this

* * *

As Dan ventured into the mysterious cave, he realised something very important. He couldn't see a thing. The sunlight entering the cave barely illuminated the area and Dan could just see the tips of his fingers on an outstretched arm.

"Stick with me, Aqua" Dan nervously ordered, worried if Dan lost Aqua, he would never be able to find him again. As Dan cautiously walked through the cave, he constantly ran into rocks and ledges. Dan hadn't realised that the rock formations had formed a maze until he became turned around, fell off a ledge and returned to the exact spot he had entered the cave. After realising the cave was actually a maze, he continued on using the rocks for guidance. The rocks were cool to the touch and slightly damp, while the sound of running water echoed in the distance. Dan could also hear a very unusual noise. Mumbling and screeching. However, he couldn't make out what the noises were saying. The noise was constantly echoing inside the dark caverns and it seemed there was multiple sources creating both the mumbles and the screeches.

"Pokémon" Dan realised. Moments after, Dan noticed a small boulder roll towards him. Assuming a Pokémon had pushed it towards Dan, he waited to see what type of Pokémon was lurking inside the cave. What Dan didn't expect was the boulder to suddenly stop in its tracks and grow a pair of arms. As the arms grew outwards, the rest of the small boulder started to change. It seemed to split in three separate areas, one large split forming along the bottom while the other two split along the top, almost connecting. As the splits grew wider, Dan realised that the largest split was revealing a fleshy area while the two smaller splits seemed to form pupils. Once it had stopped moving, the boulder let out a low, growl of 'Geodude' before zeroing in on Aqua. As soon as Dan realised he was now in a Pokémon battle, he instantly reacted.

"Aqua," Dan immediately commanded, his voice echoing throughout the cave, "Use Water Gun!" Aqua immediately released a torrent of water from his mouth, directly hitting the Geodude in the face. Aqua's strength, combined with the type advantage knocked the Geodude out instantly. The Water Gun was so powerful, it managed to push the Geodude back into the darkness of the cave.

As Dan and Aqua continued through the cave, they managed to find an item discarded on the ground. Dan reasoned that someone else who had wandered through this maze-like cave had dropped it and didn't want ro risk walking back inside. As he reached for the item, a creature swooped down and attacked Dan and Aqua. The creature was pale blue in colour with a purple skin. The creature also had pointed ears with and two small, thin tails and a wide, open mouth with four small fangs at each corner. The strangest thing about the Pokémon was its lack of eyes, even though it seems to have perfect accuracy as it hovered in place. As the creature hovered, it let out a shrill 'Zubat' before once again swooping down at Dan and Aqua.

"Hmm, it would be good to have a flying Pokémon" Dan tried to reason with him, before talking to his buddy. "Aqua" Dan commanded, "Use Rage." Aqua charged up his anger, glowing a faint shade of crimson, before attacking the Zubat in a flurry of rage. The attack seemed to take enough damage for capture, but before Dan managed to throw a Pokéball at the Zubat, the bat Pokémon latched onto Aqua, sinking his fangs inside and draining Aqua's life energy. Fortunately, Aqua managed to shake the Zubat off without losing too much energy.

"Alright Aqua," Dan started, "We want to catch it, not kill it. Rage, one more time" Dan commanded, every sound echoing throughout the cave. Aqua charged up Rage, his body glowing with a slightly darker shade of red before once again rabidly attacking the Zubat. As soon as Aqua had finished, the Zubat was finding it incredibly hard to stay in the air. Unfortunately, the attack had left Aqua so close to Zubat, the bat was able to sink its fangs straight into Aqua's head, beginning to drain Aqua's life. Before Aqua could have any more of his energy drained, Dan grabbed a Pokéball and launched it at the Zubat, halting it from draining any more of Aqua's energy. As the ball hit the Zubat, the familiar red energy covered his body, before sucking the bat into the ball. As it landed back onto the floor of the cave, the Pokéball quickly rocked three times before a resounding *click* sounded throughout the cave.

"Sweet!" Dan exclaimed. "I caught a Zubat." Dan immediately opened the Pokéball, releasing the Zubat. "What should I name you?" Dan questioned the Zubat. "How about..." Dan paused to think, "Bruce!" What Dan didn't understand was the Zubat he captured was a female. He quickly realised this once the Zubat attacked Dan, screeching into his face and flapping non-stop against his head.

"Alright Alright!" Dan quickly corrected, "How about Venom!" This quickly calmed down Zubat, as she reeled back and began to hover in front of Dan and Aqua. "O.K. Venom," Dan started to introduce, "Welcome to the team!" Dan beamed, sending Venom back into her Pokéball. Before Dan left, he looked down and remembered about the item he was going to pick up. As he reached down, he realised it was a Potion.

After Dan had picked up the Potion, he managed to escape the cave without running into any more wild Pokémon. As Dan left, he decided to train up Venom before using him to battle in the next Gym. As he walked along the rest of Route 31, he plucked another Apricorn from a nearby tree, picked up a discarded, empty Pokéball engaged in a battle with a Bug Catcher named Wade. Dan decided to use a trick he had heard about called 'EXP Switching' which involved releasing a Pokémon you want to train, then swapping said Pokémon for a stronger Pokémon to finish the actual battle. Dan managed to utilise the tactic while facing Wade's Caterpie's and his one Weedle. The Weedle was a new Pokémon Dan had never seen before. It was a light brown colour with a white spike adorning the top of his head and a second, smaller spike jutting out the back. It's face consisted of a stubby purple nose underneath two small black eyes with two rows of stubby little legs running all along his body. Dan easily managed to defeat all of Wade's Pokémon and decided to search the area for another new partner. Dan decided to try to capture someone new that he hadn't battled before. Sadly, his newest partner-Venom-was running very low on energy, so Dan decided to move into the next town which just happened to be Violet City.

Violet City was a very old town, full of cobblestone paving, Torches dotted along the edges of the paths and very old looking buildings. As soon as Dan found the Pokémon center, he noticed it was a different colour. Instead of the Orange most center's were coloured, this center was a dark shade of red. Apart from the colour scheme, the entire Pokémon center was practically the same. As Dan walked inside, he was met with another surprise. The Nurse from the previous center was also here. This seemed almost impossible to Dan. As he walked up he realised that all of her features were identical from her clothes to her height and even the hair style. The singular difference was the cross on the front of her Nurse's hat. Instead of the red he previously saw, this woman had a blue cross. After healing Venom and Aqua, Dan noticed a picture on the counter. The picture showed nine completely identical women, all in a nurse outfit with differently coloured crosses. This just confused Dan more than answer anything.

"They're my family." A soft, womanly voice explained. Dan had not seen the Nurse return and ended up jolting in place as she smiled back, unfazed by Dan's reaction.

"You'd be surprised how many people react that way," the nurse continued to explain. "These are me, my sisters, and my cousins. We all work as the Nurse Joy in all the different Pokémon centers."

"Ah" Dan sighed, understanding Nurse Joy, "That explains it. Thanks Nurse."Dan thanked before turning around and heading back to Route 31. Before he could leave, he was stopped by a young boy named Chris.

"Hey!" He shouted. "You're a trainer, right?" Chris started to question. "Do you have any Bellsprout? I can trade them for my Onix!" Chris started to question once again. The mention of Onix intrigued Dan straight away. Dan had seen an Onix on T.V. before. Onix was a gigantic rock-snake, easily towering over any Pokémon except for his evolution and some Legendary Pokémon. Dan started to imagine what it would be like to own one of his own. Unfortunately, Dan hadn't caught any Bellsprout, but decided he would, just for this trade.

"Sorry" Dan started to apologise, "I don't have one, but if you tell me where to find one, i'll go get it right away!" Dan explained. Chris' eyes lit up straight away and he pointed Dan back to Route 31. As soon as Dan knew where he was going next, he raced off, quickly waving goodbye as he hurried to catch this new Pokémon.


	7. Dan's Johto Journey Chapter 7

**Authors Note:** Sorry for not uploading anything last week but I was doing a lot of travelling over Christmas and the New Year and I wasn't really in the mood for writing. I am not using at an excuse, i was just telling you why there was no chapter last week. I should hopefully be back to my regular schedule from now on.

* * *

As Dan raced back through the gate separating Violet City and Route 31, he noticed a familiar face arriving from the other entrance.

"Danny!" She exclaimed. Both Dan and Lyra meet up in the center of the the small of the building.

"I thought I saw you run past. I bet you didn't even notice, did you?" Lyra asked rhetorically, teasing Dan as he blushed. "I wanted to wait for you by the lake. Marill here," she started as she gestured towards the blue aqua mouse, "wanted a swim in the water. You must have whizzed right passed us." Lyra ended with a smile on her face.

"Sorry I missed you," Dan started, "but Venom needed some rest after her training."

"Who's Venom?" Lyra asked, genuinely curious as to who this mystery person was.

"Oh!" Dan gasped, realising his stupidity. "You haven't met her yet, have you? Here," Dan exclaimed as he grabbed a Pokéball from around his belt holder, "I'll show you. Venom, I choose you!" Dan exclaimed, voice raised higher than normal but not quite shouting. As soon as Dan had uttered those three words, the Pokéball popped open, releasing a surge of blue and white energy into the air, before moulding into the shape of a Zubat. Once Zubat had appeared, Dan held out his arm, signalling Zubat to land onto him. "This is Venom." Dan started to explain to Lyra who appeared fixated on the small blue bat. Before Dan could say anything else, Lyra burst with excitement.

"OMG" She nearly shouted, loving almost any blue Pokémon, "She's so _cute_ ," Lyra screeched. "Can I pet her?" Lyra asked. Dan was so shocked by his friends reaction, he simply moved his arm forward, trying not to seem a little scared of Lyra. As soon as Dan had given permission, Lyra managed to calm down and began to gently stroke Zubat between the ears, earning a quiet squeak of appreciation from the bat.

"Wow" Lyra quietly muttered to herself, before Marill interrupted with a small bubble beam, slightly jealous of all the affection Lyra was giving to Venom. The Bubble Beam was powerful enough to be noticed, but not powerful enough to be painful to Lyra.

"Stop it Marill," Lyra joked, holding her hand up to her face, "Your still my partner." As Lyra stopped petting Venom, she suddenly remembered something she had picked up while she was in Cherrygrove. As she remembered, her eyes widened and she quickly dove into her bag, rummaging around for at least two minutes while Dan and Marill looked on, before she emerged holding onto a small, rectangular device.

"Here." Lyra gasped, seemingly out of breath, "That took forever to find. It's called a Versus Recorder. It's used to record your Pokémon battles. I have to keep going. Do me a favour, record your Gym battles. Please." Lyra almost begged. Dan happily agreed for two reasons. One, Lyra was his best friend and two, Lyra had put the puppy dog eyes because she knew Dan was a complete sucker for the look.

As soon as Lyra and Marill had left, Dan, Aqua and Venom ran towards Route 31 in search of a Bellsprout. Dan decided to leave Venom outside of her Pokéball to give her some extra training and Dan could use her Flight and Echo Location to his advantage, sending her up to scan for any Bellsprout. Dan and Aqua decided to continue the search on foot. As they all searched, Bellsprout managed to find one. Venom began to circle the area Bellsprout was located while she waited for Dan to notice. After Aqua had just defeated a stubborn Pidgey, Dan looked up at the exact moment Venom started to circle the air.

"Aqua, quick," Dan rushed out, excited to battle a new opponent. As Dan and Aqua rushed towards Venom's position, they saw it. A small, brown almost thorny body with a split at the bottom which seemed to be used for legs accompanied two razor-sharp leaves sitting just under a gigantic, yellow head compared to the rest of the body. The head of the Bellsprout had two black, beady, little eyes and light pink ring around what seemed to be a mouth. It appeared to be enjoying the sunlight by itself.

"So that's Bellsprout." Dan whispered to himself. As soon as Aqua saw the Bellsprout, he snarled, ready to attack. However, before Aqua could do anything, Dan threw his arm out in front of Aqua. Confused, Aqua blinked up at Dan, waiting to see why he had been stopped.

"Let's let Venom do this one." Dan stated, feeling Aqua's gaze on him. Dan carefully beckoned Zubat towards him, trying not to attract the attention of the Bellsprout. "O.K. Venom" Dan whispered, before yelling out "Leech Life!" Dan's sudden appearance combined with the loud noise startled Bellsprout enough that Venom managed to latch on, draining the life force out of Bellsprout's bulbous head. Before Venom managed to drain too much of Bellsprout's life, the Flower Pokémon unleashed two vines from between its body and its leaves, whipping Venom until she let go. Fortunately, Venom's type managed to protect her from most Bellsprout's Vine Whip.

"Venom, keep using Leech Life!" Dan called out to Venom, who was currently hovering in the air, just out of reach. As soon as Venom heard the command, she dived straight towards Bellsprout. However, instead of landing, Bellsprout managed to dodge Venom's attack with ease, showing Bellsprout's natural speed.

"Whoa." Dan commented, "I might get one of these for myself." Dan started to ponder, waiting to see how the battle turned out as he saw Venom's trajectory change at the last second, managing to land on Bellsprout anyway, draining its life force and healing herself simultaneously. This happened over and over until the Bellsprout started to show signs of weakness. Its speed was slower, its attacks were weaker and it was taking larger breaths each time. Venom seemed fine thanks to the healing power of Leech Life. Instead of prolonging the battle any further, Dan decided now was the perfect time to attempt to capture the Bellsprout. As he dug through his bag, his fingers brushed up against a small, metallic object. Grasping the object, he pulled it out, checking it was indeed a Pokéball, before launching it towards the weakened Pokémon. As the Pokéball flew through the air, it smacked the Bellsprout on the face, engulfing the weakened Pokémon with the familiar crimson energy, before sucking all of the energy inside and landing on the ground. As soon as it landed, Dan started to perform a small ritual he had developed. He crossed all his fingers on both hands, took a big breath and started to chant the phrase 'Please work.' over and over, not taking a single breath. As Dan stared at the small red and white ball, he saw it rock once...twice...thrice...*click*. As soon as Dan heard the confirmation, he breathed in before rushing over to the Pokéball.

"Yesss!" He cheered. "I got..."Dan paused as he took out his Pokédex. He had been informed by the Professor that you could scan the Pokéball to determine the occupants gender. "Him!" Dan shouted as the Pokédex completed its scan. As Dan rushed back towards Chris, he was halted by another Bellsprout, blocking the path towards Violet City. Before Dan could come to a stop, the Bellsprout used Vine Whip and aimed straight for Dan's face.

"Argh" Dan grumbled as the attack landed, leaving two straight, red marks, stretching from the top of his forehead, over his eyes and down to his chin. Before Dan could tell either of his partners to attack, the Bellsprout used its speed to race around to the left side and attack again, this time aiming for Aqua. Even though Aqua was strong, the type disadvantage he owned doubled the strength of Vine whip, dealing a lot of damage to the small reptilian. Aqua tried to shoot his Water Gun attack but before it made contact, the Bellsprout had rushed round to the right and attack Venom. This time, Dan was ready for it.

"Venom, Leech Life!" Dan's quick reaction, teamed up with Venom's air superiority managed to save Venom from being attacked as she started to drain the energy from the enemy. As the Bellsprout was distracted trying to shake Venom off, Dan turned to Aqua. As Dan and Aqua locked eyes, Dan simply stated a single word.

"Tackle."

Aqua immediately grinned at Dan, before running straight into Bellsprout. Bellsprout was so distracted by Venom, it didn't notice Aqua charging straight for it. The two combined attacks managed to weaken the Bellsprout so much, Dan decided to capture this one as well. As the Pokéball flew through the air, it smacked the Bellsprout on its left leaf, once again engulfing the Pokémon in crimson energy before pulling it into the small capsule.

As soon as it landed, Dan once again started his ritual, hoping that it would not fail him now, especially against a Pokémon with such a strong will. Dan visibly started to sweat as he looked on. It seemed like an entire minute had passed before a small *click* resonated through the air. Before he even picked up the Pokéball, Dan had grabbed his Pokédex, ready to scan the object _before_ he announced "I got her." Dan released the Pokémon, who seemed to have a much happier demeanour.

"I think I'll keep you." Dan announced, crouching down to the same level as Bellsprout. I think I'll name you..." Dan took a minute to think before exclaiming, "Belle!"

Pleased with her new nickname, Belle bounced up and down with joy, as did Aqua. Venom instead chose to flap excitedly with a smile on her face.

"O.K. guys," Dan firmly stated, "Let's go back to Violet city." Dan decided it would be a good idea to summon everyone back into their Pokéballs, except for Aqua, before heading off the finally, get an Onix.

"I wonder what it's gonna be like" Dan pondered, excited to acquire the gigantic rock snake from Chris, and hopefully battling the very first Gym.


	8. Dan's Johto Journey Chapter 8

**Authors Note:** Sorry for not uploading in ages but there has been a lot going on lately and I wasn't in the mood for it but I have uploaded the next chapter. It's the shortest one yet but the next chapter should definitely be longer. Please enjoy and be warned, there may be small feels towards the end. Enjoy.

* * *

As Dan and Aqua entered the Pokécentre, an excited Chris noticed instantly. Before the duo could walk 10 steps into the center, Chris leaped out of his seat, sprinted over towards Dan and began blurting out a string of words seemingly chained together.

"Danyou'rebackdidyougetabellsproutformehowdidyoudoitcanwetradenow!?" Chris quickly blurted out in a single breath, almost speaking a completely different language. Seeing Dan's shocked look, Aqua decided to shoot a jet of water straight into Chris' face. This shocked Chris so much, he stopped his nonsensical gibberish and ended up breathing again.

"Sorry about that," Chris apologised, slightly embarrassed by his actions. "I was really excited. Let me start again for you," Chris looked up with a small grin on his face, "and this time, I'll let you answer me. So, did you get a Bellsprout?" Chris asked, much calmer than when he first asked the question.

"Better," Dan replied, filled with a sense of accomplishment. "I got two of them. One for you," Dan reached behind his back, grabbed a Pokéball and handed it to Chris. "And one for me." Dan finished, pulling out a second Pokéball from behind his back, this time keeping it for himself.

"Great," Chris replied, eyes locked onto the Pokéball Dan had handed to him. Let's trade then." Chris stated, walking over to the back of the Pokécentre.

"Where are you going?" Dan asked, wondering why Chris randomly started to walk away from him.

"To the Trading Station." Chris replied as if the answer was obvious, while still heading towards the trading station. "If we don't use it, our Pokémon might not listen to us." Chris started, explaining how trades worked. " The machine makes the entire process simpler. But, there is a catch." Chris started, turning towards Dan. "If a traded Pokémon feels it has become too strong, it's likely it's going to rebel. The only way to make them listen again is to win enough Gym Badges." As Chris finished, he remembered something else important. "One more thing." Chris started. "The electrical stimuli can cause certain Pokémon to evolve under certain conditions." Once Chris finished explaining, Dan, Aqua and Chris all arrived at the trading station. The trading station involved two small platforms underneath a silver cone leading behind a large monitor situated in the centre of the device. Underneath the monitor was a keyboard that seemingly controlled everything. As Chris switched on the machine, he instructed Dan to place his Pokéball on the platform while he began to type in which Pokémon were being traded and who the new owners were going to be. Once Chris had finished, he placed his Pokéball on the second platform before hitting 'Enter' on the keyboard. As soon as he did, a surge of electricity erupted from the two small cones onto each Pokéball, pulling them into the cones and through the machine. The monitor then showed two very distinct silhouettes. The silhouette moving from left to right was Dan's first Bellsprout. The second silhouette was Chris' Pokémon. The silhouette was unfamiliar to Dan. It was long but large and was incredibly jagged with an odd shape jutting out of the front. As the silhouettes passed over each other and to the other sides of the screen, the Pokéballs reappeared underneath the platforms in the same surge of electricity.

"That's it." Chris calmly stated, picking up the Pokéball in front of him, before holding it out in front of him. "Come on out, Bellsprout!" Chris exclaimed, throwing the Pokéball into the air. All of a sudden, the Pokéball popped open unleashing a wave of blue, sparkling energy. Once the energy had dissipated, Bellsprout appeared, smiling straight towards Chris.

"Cool." Chris muttered underneath his breath, before looking towards Dan. "Thanks a lot, mate." Chris smiled as he looked up at Dan. "Let's head outside, I wouldn't open that inside if I were you." Chris said, a devious grin plastered on his face as he and Dan walked out the front door into the orange setting sun. As soon as Dan had exited the Pokécentre, Dan threw the Pokéball into the air. After the Pokéball had flown a couple of feet into the air, it popped open. As the blue energy surged out of the Pokéball, it created a gigantic creature seemingly created out of boulders all chained together The creature was snake-like in appearance with two large eyes on the front of his face, a long, rocky horn and a toothless mouth large enough to fit a boulder and strong enough to easily crush it. As soon as the massive creature was released, it let out a low, loud, long 'Onix'. The volume caused Dan and Aqua to both cover there ears while Chris seemed unaffected.

"Told you so." Chris stated, simply grinning at Dan, before walking up and placing his hand on Onix's body.

"His name's Rocky" Chris started to explain. "He's a rock/ground type. He knows Tackle, Rock Throw, Sandstorm and Harden." Chris finished, all the while, patting Rocky's body. Once Chris had finished, he looked up to the giant creatures head. "I'll miss you, buddy" Chris finished, walking towards Dan. "Hey," Chris nervously started, "Can I get your Pokégear number?" Chris asked, before explaining. "It would be cool to be mates. And I can talk to Rocky." Chris pointed out, turning to a smiling Rocky. "So, what do you say?" Chris once again asked, turning to Dan with a Pokégear in his hand.

"Sure thing buddy" Dan calmly answered, pulling out his own Pokégear and exchanging numbers. Once that had finished, Chris said farewell to Rocky before Dan returned him into his Pokéball and both friends parted ways.

Realising how late it was, Dan decided to find book a room in the Pokécentre for the night and decided to battle the Gym first thing in morning. After talking to the Nurse Joy in charge and booking a room for the night, Dan, Aqua, Venom, Rocky and Belle all decided to have some lunch. Fortunately, the cafeteria was large enough that Rocky could eat with the rest of the gang. After some Dinner, Dan sent everyone except Aqua back into their Pokéballs before heading to their room, trying to get some sleep before tackling the Gym the next day.


End file.
